Giovanni Boldini

(Italian, 1842-1931)

Souper Chez Maxim's; A Portrait of a Young Woman said to be Mlle Boldini (a double-sided work)

watercolor and charcoal on paper

bears stamped signature Boldini (lower left); stamped and with an inscription by artist’s wife’s (verso)

8 ¾ x 11 inches.

Property from a Private Collection, Taos, New Mexico

We thank Dr. Francesca Dini, art historian and curator of Giovanni Boldini's catalogue raisonné, for confirming the authenticity of this lot.

This double-sided drawing was in the artist’s studio at the time of his death, when his wife, Emilia Boldini Cardona, catalogued it and added the note on the verso.

Provenance:

The artist's studio

Emilia Cardona, the artist's widow

Princess Désirée Windisch-Graetz, after 1931

Sold: Sotheby's, New York, February 27, 1986, Lot 265

Acquired directly from the above sale by the present owner

Lot essay:

Originally from Ferrara, Italy, Giovanni Boldini moved to Florence where, beginning in 1864, he was influenced by the Macchiaioli group—landscape painters who combined Realist and Impressionist techniques. Seduced by the Parisian lifestyle, in 1871 he made the decision to settle in the French capital, where he became one of the most appreciated artists represented by the Goupil & Cie gallery. During the 1880s, Boldini returned to portraiture, once a youthful passion. The artist depicted the protagonists of the Belle Epoque in large-format paintings that made him internationally famous among the "worldly portraitists" of his time, among them John Singer Sargent.

Watercolor was Boldini’s medium of choice throughout his career, as it appealed to his colorist’s sensitivity. The charm of the present watercolor consists precisely in the magical interpenetration of color and graphic line from which springs an extraordinary vital energy. In the first two decades of the 20th Century, Boldini was fascinated by the rhythms and characters of his beloved Paris, which he depicted with his free and masterful drawing. This is likely when Souper Chez Maxim’s was executed, as evidenced by the cloche hat worn by the woman in the center of the composition, a type of hat that was fashionable at this time. Boldini is firmly on the stage of the modern Parisian metropolis, of which he savors the vitality, the pleasantness of life, and the fragrant beauty of the young women who crowd the social gatherings (compare with the oil paintings, of a similar subject included in Piero Dini & Francesca Dini, Giovanni Boldini (1842-1931): Catalog Raisonné, Turin 2002, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, nos. 1163-1164).

In 1926 Boldini met the Piedmontese journalist Emilia Cardona. They married in 1929, not without scandal, due to the enormous difference in age (the artist was 87). If the female figure portrayed on the sheet verso is really the thirty-year old Emilia, as suggested, it is likely Boldini reused this sheet after 1926.

Souper Chez Maxim's; A Portrait of a Young Woman said to be Mlle Boldini (a double-sided work)

Souper Chez Maxim's; A Portrait of a Young Woman said to be Mlle Boldini (a double-sided work)